Chapter 413
Chapter 413
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: [Undisclosed]
Chapter Title: Forging Xuan Du Blessed Land
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Dragon Palace. Lu Yang slipped silently out of the treasury.
Suo Huan thoughtfully closed the door behind him. Then Lu Yang watched as he silently twisted off the dragon head knocker from the door and tucked it into his pocket.
The motion was practiced, seamless.
Lu Yang frowned at once. So unclean with his hands—who the hell did he learn that from? If word got out, people would think we'd come here to strip the place bare!
With that in mind, Lu Yang resolved to give Suo Huan a stern talking-to.
"Make a fake one and put it back!"
Meanwhile, Suo Huan caught the look of disdain in Lu Yang's eyes.
At first, he figured Lu Yang must disapprove of his actions and prepared to beg forgiveness. But then he heard the words—and it clicked.
'He thinks I'm not professional enough!'
His own vision had been too narrow!
"It's this subordinate's mistake."
Suo Huan hurriedly cupped his hands in salute. He produced a lump of refined iron, forged it into the exact likeness of the dragon head—shape, expression, everything identical—then infused it with a layer of shimmering spiritual qi to give it the luster of a priceless treasure. Only then did he mount it back on the door.
"That's more like it."
Lu Yang nodded in approval. With a wave of his hand, he followed Tian Qiu's lead and retraced their steps, vanishing silently from the Dragon Palace through the secret passage.
By this point, chaos still reigned inside and outside the Dragon Palace.
Lu Yang had come quietly.
Lu Yang left quietly.
He took not a single wisp of cloud.
'I took the Dragon Palace treasury. Even if the palace falls, those bandits will get nothing. Call it my contribution to the Dragon Clan!'
Offshore, on a remote island.
"I'm going into immediate seclusion. Everyone, stand guard for me!"
The moment they left the Dragon Palace, Lu Yang prepared to shut himself away. No helping it—the haul was too massive. If he didn't find a way to use it soon, he wouldn't have a moment's peace.
'Though this probably isn't the full extent of the Dragon Palace's treasures.'
'At the very least, the Dragon Lord's private collection isn't in there!'
He had to admit, everything in the treasury was rarer than the last. But in truth, precious few items would be of any use to a Golden Core True Lord.
'Doesn't surprise me. Anything useful to a Golden Core True Lord wouldn't sit in a vault—it'd be carried on their person, where they could keep an eye on it. And these resources? Clearly meant to rapidly elevate a blessed land to perfection in preparation for seeking the core.'
Which made them immensely valuable to Lu Yang right now.
Enough to drastically close the gap between him and those veteran peak Foundation Establishment cultivators!
After all, he hadn't even refined a true blessed land yet. [Lihen Tian] might be called a mini blessed land, but it wasn't the real thing.
'I was just worrying how to upgrade it into a proper one.'
'No need to worry anymore!'
In the makeshift secret chamber, Lu Yang settled his mind and spirit. With a thought, he shed his human form and manifested the true appearance of [Lihen Tian].
"Begin!"
No hesitation. He upended the full pot of [Heavenly One True Water] straight into [Lihen Tian]—pure extravagance.
A single drop of [Heavenly One True Water] could nurture a blessed land, but it required thirty-six days of careful refinement to maximize its effect. Dumping in an entire pot like this? Compared to proper refinement, it wasted fully ninety percent!
But Lu Yang didn't see it that way.
'One drop takes thirty-six days to refine properly? Time's the one thing I'm shortest on! Even ten percent efficacy is plenty for me.'
Quantity was his path to victory!
As for the waste? No pain when it was the baby Dragon Clan's fields paying for it.
Use it first, worry later!
Boom!
In that instant, Lu Yang clearly perceived the massive transformation in [Lihen Tian]. Even the five divine abilities he had refined manifested in sequence.
[Linglong Heart], [Harboring True Qi], [Converging Origin Merit], [Bearing Heaven's Framework], [One with the World]!
The five divine abilities plunged into [Lihen Tian] all at once. Then, like ice and snow melting away, they began fusing into a unified whole!
But right then—
Whoosh!
In a flash, Lu Yang sensed a familiar gale roaring up from the void, slashing down on [Lihen Tian] like a thousand blades, a million scrapes.
'Bi Winds!?'
Lu Yang's pupils contracted sharply.
These winds existed only within the [Foundation Establishment Realm]. Yet now, as he refined his blessed land, the Bi Winds were blowing out from the Foundation Establishment stage itself!
'Why is this happening?'
'No—wrong question. What is a blessed land?'
Lu Yang's mind raced back to Chongguang's past teachings:
'The so-called [blessed land] is what a peak Foundation Establishment great cultivator forms by using their natal essence as the foundation, supplementing with innate divine abilities, and expanding their dao base.'
The essence of a blessed land was the dao base!
'Every advancement of the dao base demands tempering by the three calamities. To reach perfection requires surviving the heaven-man five declines.'
'The same holds for a blessed land.'
'Ordinary peak Foundation Establishment cultivators don't face this when refining one—their dao bases have already endured these trials.'
'But I'm different.'
'My cultivation is entirely rooted in [Lihen Tian]. I achieved it by directly absorbing the world's essence from the Seven Radiance Heavens via qi-gathering arts.'
'So [Lihen Tian] has never weathered the three calamities or the five declines.'
"And to refine a true blessed land, I have to make up for it now!"
Suddenly it all made sense to Lu Yang. "No wonder realms like the [Xuanling Realm] have no concept of blessed lands."
No wonder it was unique to this godforsaken place!
'Tribulations are disasters if you fail them—but opportunities if you survive!'
Boom!
The next instant—before Lu Yang could even react—a cluster of yin fire ignited silently within [Lihen Tian], poised to sweep through everything.
"Come on!"
Lu Yang didn't hesitate. With a thought, he summoned every last bit of the five-elements spirit materials from the Dragon Palace treasury—piled into mountains.
The instant the materials appeared, the yin fire consumed them, melting them down. The Bi Winds scoured away the dross, leaving only the purest essences to sink into [Lihen Tian], gradually integrating into the proto-blessed land. As more materials poured in, [Lihen Tian]'s aura steadily climbed.
Until a thunderclap rang out.
Boom!
A colossal bolt of lightning crashed down from nowhere, shattering the still-somewhat-disjointed [Lihen Tian] and materials alike—then fusing them into one seamless whole.
Bi Winds to polish.
Yin fire to forge.
Heavenly thunder to baptize!
The three calamities struck in relentless succession. Were Lu Yang not already at peak Foundation Establishment—with the halo from his five divine abilities anchoring [Lihen Tian] tight—it would have collapsed by now.
But soon after the three calamities came the heaven-man five declines!
Dharma body befouled.
Dao base dustied.
Divine abilities withered.
Mana ebbed.
Heart demons bred.
In a heartbeat, all five tribulations manifested at once!
As the five declines descended, the radiant glow of [Lihen Tian] dimmed in an instant.
Lu Yang wasted no time. He hurled out the fragment of [Heaven-Covering Washing Profound Cave-Heaven] and tossed it straight into [Lihen Tian]!
This cave-heaven shard had been meant for elevating a new [Tianhe Water] True Lord's cave-heaven. Now Lu Yang was squandering it to stabilize his blessed land—an absurd mismatch in scale. But the effect was freakishly potent, instantly quelling the turmoil in [Lihen Tian]!
Boom!
At the sight, the heaven-man five declines surged to a new intensity, as if dead set on not stopping until Lu Yang was crushed.
Lu Yang hurriedly formed seals. '[One with the World]!'
...
The next second, the calamities ground to a halt.
Lu Yang could sense it: the five declines had been brewing for ages, ready to unleash hell. But now? Frozen in place.
Lu Yang grinned.
[One with the World] wasn't invincible. Each transferred strike wore on the divine ability itself. Push past the limit, and it had to stop.
Nor was its tie to heaven-and-earth unbreakable.
Lu Yang was certain that with the four great powers' foundations, someone sufficiently profound in the Dao of Karma could find a counter.
But against heaven-and-earth itself? Utterly helpless—especially this crippled, constrained heaven-and-earth of their broken realm. It had no answer for Lu Yang!
"Come on then. Hit me."
In response to the taunt, the five declines' aura ballooned several times—only to halt short of the [One with the World] halo again and again.
Finally, it deflated like a punctured balloon.
All tribulations dissolved into nothingness.
Lu Yang sat poised in midair. [Lihen Tian] reformed into flesh and blood. Yet from within this nascent blessed land, a wholly new halo took shape.
Like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.
"This is my blessed land."
The next instant, Lu Yang looked skyward. The brand-new halo settled onto his brow. Within its light danced a thousand gorgeous visions.
A name surfaced naturally in his mind:
[Xuan Du Blessed Land.]
In that moment, [Xuan Du Blessed Land] was like a lens. Through it, Lu Yang's once-murky vision pierced clear, revealing the true face of this heaven-and-earth.
"Holy fuck!"
Lu Yang's expression froze.
What he saw: the once seamless heaven-and-earth now resembled a colossal honeycomb. Up, down, left, right—it was riddled with enormous holes!
The largest thirty? Precisely the thirty fruit positions!
The rest—varying in size—were the blessed lands of peak Foundation Establishment cultivators and the cave-heavens of Golden Core True Lords. This heaven-and-earth was already a sieve, punched full of holes!
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